Hi there!
My stats are good enough for a full tuition scholarship at UA, or a 9k scholarship at OSU (which, since I’m an Oregon resident, ends up being pretty much full tuition as well).
ACT: 35
UWGPA: 3.84
WGPA: 4.28
My intended major is likely engineering, but I’d love to hear about the difference in the CS programs between the two schools.
Finally, would somewhere like Cal Poly SLO or UMN be worth the extra ~20k over these two schools?
Thanks!
They’re both in the same tier (tier 2 engineering schools), but Oregon State has a marginally better program. Oregon State CS is considerably stronger than UA, but it’s still arguably not in the top 50. I’d suggest comparing the syllabi for a few courses to get an idea of the difference in the program. Look at the problem sets and see how much they cover in a semester.
UMN and Cal Poly SLO are probably not worth $20k more, unless your family has a lot of money. UMN is in the top 50 for CS and Cal Poly is probably more hands-on than the others. Cal Poly doesn’t have a graduate program and one of the top selling points is that it’s a reputed CA engineering school with low cost. You lose that advantage as an OOS applicant.
So in your case, OSU is the best option among these three schools.
Have you narrowed your search down to these four? Since you are asking if it’s worth it, I assume you think it might be and CPSLO and UMN are your 1- 2 choices. They are great schools, but it should not be difficult to find work w/engineering or cs degree from any accredited school. Would you be “80k more happy” at these two schools, only you and your parents can answer that…
UMN might be worth it only if you’re doing ChemE as they’re very strong in that. Otherwise, I’d say stick with OSU if you want to stay in Oregon, UA if you want to spend some time in the south. Like frontpage said, check the courses offered to see if you like one over the other.
Love the Beavs, love Corvallis, love the cost. But there is something to be said for getting out of Oregon and experiencing your formative college years in another part of the country (especially if you are a native!)
You may be qualified for a top university like JHU, Cornell, MIT, Northwestern, etc. They might be a good fit for you, but you will only get need based aid.
I agree with frontpage. You should apply to a few top engineering schools and see what aid they offer (or run the NPCs). Then you can fall back on OSU and UAs as safety.
Besides the ones he listed, also try Michigan, G-Tech, Rice, Duke, USC, RPI.